


Start Another Story

by Anorien



Category: The Fall
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-04
Updated: 2015-03-04
Packaged: 2018-03-16 06:59:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3478742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anorien/pseuds/Anorien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Five years after the events of The Fall, Roy Walker meets a familiar face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Start Another Story

It was another humid day in Southern California. Roy Walker pulled a handkerchief out of the breast pocket of his blazer. Taking off his white fedora, he dabbed at his forehead, looking up at the clock tower. 11:35. He sighed, replacing his hat and handkerchief, continuing down the sidewalk. A few blocks away, a young boy shouted out the most recent headlines, trying to sell some penny newspapers. The smell of gasoline and exhaust hung heavy in the air, making Roy's eyes water. If his work as a Hollywood stuntman didn't pay so well, he thought, he would leave the Los Angeles area. Move north, perhaps. Maybe go up to San Francisco.

 

Roy ducked into a five-and-dime for a moment. He went to stand in the refrigerated section, thumbing through a magazine, enjoying the cold. Skimming over and an article about the assassination attempt on Mussolini, he thought about how he used to visit his grandmother in Lake Tahoe for Christmas as a young boy. He remembered staring wide-eyed out the window, entranced by the blanket of snow that lay in the yard, and how he loved the cold days. All of that sounded wonderful on a day like this.

  
Replacing the magazine, Roy grabbed a bottle of Coke and a pack of cigarettes before going out to face the heat again. Down the block on the left, he could see a young girl with a thick Romanian accent bickering with a fruit vendor. Roy cocked his head as he lit his cigarette. Damn, she sounded familiar. He shrugged and continued down the block.

  
"Roy!" the girl shouted, abandoning the argument and running toward him. Startled and knowing how fans could sometimes get out of hand, he began to quicken his pace. The little girl just ran faster, calling after him.

  
"Roy! Roy Walker!" _Maybe she just wants an autograph,_ he thought. _No reason to be rude to a fan-_. His thoughts were interrupted by the little girl.

  
"You can use your legs again!" Roy stopped dead in his tracks. The voice was familiar, but it couldn't have been...

  
"Alexandria?" he said, turning just as she caught up with him. She flashed a big, toothy grin - her front teeth had grown back in since last he saw her - and nodded. He smiled back, mouth half-open in surprise. She ran forward and wrapped her arms around her.

  
"Good God, Alexandria! How long has it been?" She looked up at him, still grinning.

  
"Five years," she said. "I was going to turn six when I left the hospital and I just turned eleven. And look!" She held up her left arm proudly, "It's all better, just like your legs!" Roy smiled fondly, remembering the little girl with the black pigtail braids and the cast on her arm. She would visit him every day after his hospitalization for a spinal injury that almost left him paralyzed. She'd run into his room, jumping onto his bed and setting down her cigar box that she carried like a stuffed animal, and demand to hear a story.

  
The Epic. The story of the Bandit. The story of his friends - the Indian, the Mystic, the slave Otto Benga, the explosives expert, even Charles Darwin, and... his daughter. All of them were on a quest for revenge against Governor Sinclair - no. It wasn't Sinclair, though Roy had based him on Sinclair. Roy shook off the grudge for a moment.

  
"What were you fighting about?" he asked, motioning toward the fruit vendor. Alexandria frowned.

  
"He wouldn't give me food. I ask him, he doesn't give it to me!" she said.

  
"W- Alexandria, he can't just _give_ you food, you have to buy it!" Roy said, chuckling. "Did you offer him money?"

  
"No my..." Alexandria grumbled.

  
"I beg your pardon?"

  
"I don't have money. I spend it all."

  
"What did you spend it on?"

  
"Other food..." she said quietly. Roy was confused.

  
"Why don't you just come back tomorrow, ask your mom for some money," he said, careful not to scold her. It wasn't his place.

  
"I wait too long... Mama cannot give money," she answered, staring at her shoes. Roy noticed now how worn they were. He sighed.

  
"Alright, I'll give you some, but from now on ask the owner of that orchard you work on," he said, reaching for his wallet.

  
"He doesn't have the orchard." Roy paused.

  
"What do you mean?"

  
"Mr. Olsen, he no longer has the orchard."

  
"What happened, did he sell it?" Roy asked, furrowing his brow, unsure of where this conversation would lead.

  
"It burn down." The actor's breath caught in his throat. He went to speak, but she continued.

  
"It was back in... It was five months ago. Mr. Olsen send me home for the day and then we hear the bells. They brought the horses and the water cart, but it did not work. They could not put it out. The orchard isn't there now."

  
"So you and your mom have no money now?" Alexandria shook her head.

  
"No, Mama, she was, she wasn't home yet, she was working. And then the fire started and she did not come out."

  
With that, Roy felt his heart drop into his stomach. He looked her over and saw how thin she was - a stark contrast to the chubby-cheeked little girl who came into his hospital room every day. He'd dismissed it as puberty, knowing how lanky and awkward children can get. No, this wasn't some natural course of life - she was _starving_. He was silent for a moment, trying to think of what to say.

  
"Wh-where are you staying?" Stammering was inevitable. This little girl he came to love had just told him some of the most harrowing news he'd ever received in his life. She shook her head.

  
"I've been hiding," she said. She pointed down the street. "There is a a building there, it's where I live."

  
"Is it an orphanage or-?" Roy trailed off. Alexandria shook her head.

  
"No, it's a building, I live there now."

  
Roy let out a sigh. He could still see that joyous, youthful glint in her eyes, just as he'd seen nearly every day in the hospital five years ago. He gave a nod.

  
"Alexandria," he said quietly, "come with me."

  
"Hm?'

  
"You can't live on the streets begging for food. I won't allow it," he said. "I want you to come and stay with me."

  
The child stared for a moment, then turned around and wandered down the street again. Roy began to panic.

  
"Alexandria!" he called after her. He grabbed her arm as he caught up to her.

  
"I need to go get my box!" she said. "I left it back there." She pointed down the road again. Roy nodded, following. The two were silent, Alexandria skipping merrily down the street, the actor taking long strides to keep up. Four blocks down, the little girl crossed the street and headed down an alleyway.

  
 _No place for a girl her age_ , the actor thought, sadly. _Certainly not alone_. He followed her into an old warehouse where she crawled into a cargo container. It was musty, dark, and Roy found his shoes left imprints in the dirt on the floor.

  
"How long have you been living here?" he asked, removing his sunglasses and straining to see in the dim light.

  
"Four months!" Alexandria called back.

  
"Four months," he repeated. He watched as the little girl flung old bags and papers out of the crate. A package that once contained raw cuts of meat fell beside him. Had she been eating uncooked scraps that the butchers threw out? He would need to take her to a doctor.

  
"Found it!" she announced, emerging from the container at last. In her hands, she clutched her beloved cigar box. Roy couldn't help but smile.

  
"Let's go home now."

 

***

 

Alexandria skipped gaily around the living room. Being alone, Roy hadn't invested in the largest home in Beverly Hills, but he knew that there was a good chance the little girl had never seen the like before. For all he knew, her only homes were run-down shacks. To her, this could well be a palace.

  
"It's better than I thought of!" Alexandria cried, skipping up to the kitchen counter. She rested her head on the marble, watching as Roy made them both some iced tea.

  
"What's better?" he asked, tilting his head in curiosity.

  
"The Bandit's Mansion!" she exclaimed. "He bought it for him and his daughter when he beat Governor Odious."

  
"Yeah, that's right, he did," Roy smiled, playing along. He would have to set some limits and ground rules with the child, but now wasn't the time for that. She was well-behaved, he knew, at the hospital - with the exception of throwing oranges at the priest. He remembered that from her snowflake letter to the nurses that floated in through his window on the day they met. He handed her a glass, which she drank eagerly. She hummed her approval.

  
"The Indian taught his friends the secret to making perfect tea," he said, eliciting a grin from the child. The sight of her front teeth was still a slight shock to him. "Alright, Bandit, what do you want to eat? You've gotta be hungry."

  
"Do you have supa cu taitei?" she asked. "Papa used to make that when I was little."

  
"I'm sorry, Alexandria, I've never heard of that before."

  
"It's a soup like at the hospital," she explained. "It has chicken and..." she began mumbling in Romanian for a moment. "The yellow things! They are flat, they give it in soup."  
"I don't have any - what was it?"

  
"Supa cu taitei."

  
"Right, that," Roy said, looking through the pantry, "but I have chicken noodle soup, if that's alright?"

  
"That is the word in English! Chicken with noodle."

  
"Alright, then. Soup it is."

 

***

 

After dinner, Roy took Alexandria upstairs.

  
"They don't live in Governor Odious' old house, do they?" she inquired. The actor smiled. When Alexandria had left the hospital all those years ago, Roy never would have guessed how much the Epic would mean to her. He would never have dreamed that she still carried the Bandit's story with her.

  
"No," he replied. "Wherever Odious went, everything fell into ruin. They offered the Bandit Odious' mansion, but he turned it down. He knew the house was poisoned by the Governor's evil deeds."

  
They made their way down the hall, and Roy led Alexandria into his room.She surveyed her surroundings quietly.

  
"I don't have a guest room, so you can sleep here until we can get you a room of your own," Roy told her. "I'll be right back." He went into the next room and pushed a plush armchair into the hall. The bed was big enough to accommodate them both, but Roy was uncomfortable with the idea of sharing a bed with a young girl. He gave the chair a final shove, shifting it beside the bed. Alexandria was bouncing up and down in the center of the mattress.

  
"What's that for?" she asked.

  
"I can't sleep on the floor because of my back. I'm better, but it still hurts."

  
"Sleep here!" Alexandria said, patting the blanket next to her.

  
"That's, uh... well, it's not appropriate for me to do that."

  
"Why?"

  
"Maybe one day I'll explain," he said, "but not just now. I think we both need some sleep. You've had a big day, and I think I might take you to a doctor tomorrow."

  
"Why? I'm not sick," the little girl insisted.

  
"Just for a checkup," Roy explained. "You've been eating old food and living in a metal box for months. We should just make sure everything is in working order." Figure out how to get some weight on you.  _Figure out how to get some weight on you._

  
Alexandria nodded, blinking groggily. She let out a yawn, stretching her arms. Roy laid her cigar box on the nightstand, covering her with the blankets. He sat in the armchair, smiling inwardly at the new chapter of his life that had begun.

  
"Tell me a story?" Alexandria asked.

  
"About the Bandit?"

  
"No, a different one tonight."

  
Roy thought for a moment. He got the feeling he would need to brush up on his story telling.

  
"Do you like tragic love stories?"

  
"No."

  
"How about a villainous space tyrant?"

  
She shook her head.

  
"What about-"

  
"I want a story where not everyone dies at the end," Alexandria told him. Roy nodded, chewing the inside of his cheek in thought.

  
"Do you want another long story?" he said after a moment.

  
 _"Yeah,_ like the Epic!"

  
"Very well," Roy said. "Let me tell you the story of the Elven King..."

**Author's Note:**

> Well, I've gone for a change of pace (HA. I'm funny.) with this fic. I had an idea for a story that followed the events of The Fall, and about two years ago in a waiting room, this was born. I only recently got around to finishing, as I'm hoping to clean out some of my old, unfinished files. I will be posting more of Envisioned soon, though, and am toying with the idea of more series. We'll see.
> 
> \- Californian readers: I'm sorry if I got anything wrong here. I have never been to LA and I know next to nothing about your state (other than that it's warmer than here and there are earthquakes). Please excuse any mistakes.  
> \- History buff readers: I'm sorry if I got anything wrong about five-and-dimes in California in the 20s. I really am just winging that part.  
> \- While Alexandria's nationality is never mentioned in the film, Catinca Untaru is Romanian. I took that and ran with it.  
> \- Mr Olsen is made up.   
> \- Supă cu tăiţei is a Romanian soup made of chicken broth and noodles. I am sure that Alexandria, when her father was alive, did not live in poverty, though if she did, it seems simple enough to make.  
> \- The stories Roy is willing to tell are all nods to Lee's other roles - the tragic love story is Soldier's Girl, the space tyrant is Ronan the Accuser, and the Elven King is, of course, Thranduil. I'd imagined the ending line some time ago, and fell in love with it.
> 
> I hope you all enjoyed this fic! I have one or two Marvel fics I'd like to post, but we will soon return to your regularly-scheduled Middle Earth fics.


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